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Palace Algeria

A work made of waxed paper negative.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of waxed paper negative.

Date:

1859

Artist:

Gustave de Beaucorps
French, 1825–1906

About this artwork

A talented amateur with an aristocratic upbringing, Gustave de Beaucorps began photographing his extensive travels in the mid-1850s. His studies of the architecture, landscapes, and people of Algeria—which France had invaded in 1830—tapped into a public fascination with Orientalist depictions of the Middle East and North Africa. De Beaucorps employed paper negatives, then the preferred technology for photographing architecture. Because enlarging was not yet practicable (prints were made by contact with the negative in direct sunlight), photographer-voyagers required cameras as large as the pictures they wished to make. Although this paper negative does not represent the image’s final presentation, it reveals the intricate patterning of Moorish architecture in reverse. A member of the French Photographic Society, de Beaucorps exhibited his prints of Algeria in Paris in 1859, 1861, and 1869.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Gustave de Beaucorps

Title

Palace Algeria

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1859

Medium

Waxed paper negative

Dimensions

Image: 28.2 × 38.6 cm (11 1/8 × 15 1/4 in.); Paper: 28.9 × 39.1 cm (11 7/16 × 15 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment Fund

Reference Number

2000.63

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/154271/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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